ANDREA RUNNELS
If you are like me, you are almost down to counting the minutes to quitting time Friday or whenever that glorious day is that your holiday break commences! I can hear my pajamas calling my name and I have my finger poised and ready to click off that alarm! Pretty sure my husband is tired of hearing that alarm go off about 5 times with every snooz. Not that I don’t love my 5th graders, but we could all use a little R&R. OK, keeping it real I’ll be working on something or other but you get my point. Since I’ve been teaching for what seems like forever, I have quite a collection of go-to fillers and life-savers!!! I’m sharing a combo of my ideas and a couple other freebies from Teachers Pay Teachers legends! I have them all pinned on my Christmas Pinterest Board along with many more ideas!
I am at T-minus 2 days. I am so happy to be done with District Testing and now we can get in a little content-based (of course!) fun! Do you need some ideas to help keep your angels occupied until your break begins? Well, I have decided to get the ball rolling with another sellers’ Periscope challenge!
Here it is: Share 5 TpT products that can help us keep our sanity (and maybe have a chance to squeeze in some grading time) in about 5 minutes. Don’t worry, you won’t lose points if you go over 5 minutes or if you share more than 5 (especially if they are freebies). I just think 5 minutes is a good goal for those “scopers” who aren’t as comfortable in front of the camera. Now me, I would love my own reality show;). Your choice dear sellers/buyers as to whether these are your own products or a combo of yours and other sellers’ creations.
Since I very recently posted some holiday-themed Social Studies resources think I will share those first. Necessity is the mother of invention because frankly not too many products for Christmas intermingled with history exist. And if they do, they aren’t for upper elementary. I am departmentalized anyways so not like I can do my “usual” holiday stuff (well until party day).
WWI Christmas Truce Web Quest
Being the history geek I am, I have always been fascinated by the story of the Christmas Truce during WWI. I even watched a movie about it with sub-titles. Ooh-la-la! This web quest goes along with Eyewitness to History, one of my favorite SS sites. The great thing is you can print the articles if you are limited with devices. I designed it to require writing complete sentences with evidence. Test prep baby. Boom!
Holiday History Hop Stations/Task Rotation
My recent Unwrapping the Holidays link-up post was about my Holiday History Hop Task Rotations. I have turned them into a snazzy product and created my own Civil War DBQ activity to go with it, which can also be purchased separately. Let your kiddos travel through Christmas during the Civil War, Ellis Island, the Turn of the Century, and more!
I have also added a new Christmas Through the Ages Choice Board Set which covers following eras: American Revolution, The California Gold Rush, Roaring 20s, Great Depression, WWII, and The Space Race.
Make-a-Word
I don’t have this in printable directions but the idea is very simple and you can make it work for you. It was great for morning work. Have kids write the word December, Christmas, Winter, or any other holiday-related word and see how many words they can make with the exact letters. I had mine create at least 20 words total only using the letters in the words. See the picture for a sample and watch the Facebook Live replay for more explanation. I shared the idea for Thanksgiving but it works with any holiday!
Would You Rather?
My favorite holiday activity for every holiday are the “Would You Rather?” sheets from Rachel Lynette. I love them because they get the kids excited and then they start talking about their choices ! Haha, before they realized it I tricked them into using those glorious talking skills for good, not evil! I have them pick a choice for all first. Then I turn it into a writing prompt by having them pick several and write a few sentences explaining why they made that choice. I also give another option for my creative writers (so happy I do have some), to take one of the scenarios and turn it in to a narrative piece! I’m all about unleashing creativity and you can, too with this Christmas Would You Rather? freebie! She has several others for different holidays!
Build a Snowman Decimal Activity
I would be remiss if I did not mention one of my all-time TPT faves, Jennifer Findley. You can pretty much count on EVERYTHING of hers being high quality! She has several holiday math freebies for 3rd-5th including this Build a Snowman Decimal Activity!
Closing Thoughts:)
Tomorrow most of my kiddos are having an unfinished work party. The ones who are part of the illustrious “NO NTI (not turned in assignments) Club” get to sit where they want and work on my web quest together! They also get a candy cane Hershey Kiss. They seemed excited about that prospect;).
So, coming soon plan on a “Frosty the Scientific Snowman” song. This bizarro idea randomly came to me when I was getting ready this morning! I’m going to write it tomorrow and have my kids create their own scientific method parody song Friday morning!! They have to do a science fair project in early 2016 so getting them prepared! I don’t often talk about science, but when I do it’s because I have to teach it, too! Check out the post here: Frosty the Scientific Snowman